DUSHANBE, June 3, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- On Thursday June 2, President Emomali Rahmon received a delegation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), led by Mr. Daniel Glaser, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and Co-chairman of the FATF Working Group on Terrorist Financing, according to the presidential press service.

In the course of the talks, the sides discussed issues related to cooperation between Tajikistan and this premier international body in the fight against money laundering in combating economic and corruption crimes.

President Rahmon stressed that strengthening legality and public order, ensuring supremacy of law and intensifying fight against crime were priorities of activities of the country’s government.

He, in particular, noted that in cooperation with the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and upon recommendations of that FATF-style regional body, Tajikistan had carried out considerable efficient work, the source said.

The financial supervision department established at the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) has established an efficient cooperation with different structures of the country to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, Tajik leader noted.

Besides, the law on combating money laundering and terrorist financing has been adopted.  The rate of solvability of corruption-related crimes has increased 2.5 times in Tajikistan.

Mr. Daniel Glaser, for his part, reportedly assessed positively the first steps taken by Tajikistan towards bringing its legislation into compliance with international standards and expressed confidence that the Tajik Government would develop and adopt the plan of further actions to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7. The purpose of the FATF is to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

The FATF membership is currently made up of 34 countries and territories and 2 regional organisations. The FATF also works in close cooperation with a number of international and regional bodies involved in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.